


Stuck in an Elevator

by Bleck



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fluff, M/M, autistic tobias
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-08
Updated: 2017-06-08
Packaged: 2018-11-11 09:54:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11146047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bleck/pseuds/Bleck
Summary: What it says on the tin.





	Stuck in an Elevator

"I'm too autistic for this." Tobias muttered to himself, looking at the rain from his seat next to the window. Class was almost over and he absolutely did not want to go back to his dorm. Rain was sensory hell for him and he had lent his umbrella to Ax earlier because his roommate had a longer walk back to the dorm from his last class. But just because Tobias had a shorter walk didn't mean it was short. He grimaced. His coat was old and worn and wouldn't provide much protection. It was too comfortable to try and find a new one though. Rain like this didn't happen very often anyway. 

A lot of classes were cut short because of the sudden storm but no, his last class was taught by Mr. Hamee. He liked him and all, he was an excellent Storytelling professor and a nice guy, but he said the rain was an excellent opportunity for class. Lovely. He wondered idly what Jake was up to right now.

Finally, class was dismissed. Normally Tobias would linger and talk to his professor but he really couldn't do that today. He could feel his skin itching from the rain already. Tobias gathered everything bag in his bag, zipped up his coat, and waved to his teacher on the way out.

Times like this, he was glad he lived on campus. It wasn't always fun but at least he didn't have far to go to collapse on his bed. As Tobias power walked to his dorm, he kept having to turn around and find another path. There were giant puddles everywhere! Other students braved them but he wasn't about to. Tobias was getting kind of worried, if the next path wasn't clear he'd have to slog through at least three puddles to get to his dorm. 

"Oh jeez." The path was far from clear. It was the biggest puddle he'd seen! It was practically a pond. 

He couldn't stand around in the rain thinking though. Even if he wasn't getting soaked, every rain drop stung his skin and it was getting hard to focus on anything else. There was a building nearby and he hoped it was still open. Tobias sprinted up the steps and went to open the door. Mercifully, it opened.

"Jesus!" He jumped as the door slammed shut behind him. "Stupid door." At least the building had lights and heat on. Now that he was inside he could worry about the fact that he was totally soaked. His hair was plastered to his face and dripping water in front of his eyes, his coat would take days to dry, his jeans were covered in splash marks from other students and small puddles, and he really didn't want to check the damage to the books in his messenger bag.

Tobias took his coat off and wrung it out next to the door. He dropped it on a stool nearby and opened his bag, dreading the damage. The bag was battered when he bought it and he'd had it all year. To his surprise, no water got in even though the top of the bag was soaked. "The only good thing today." 

To his surprise, students started entering the hallway. Being so focused on his clothes, Tobias hadn't even noticed there were people in classes still. It was suddenly crowded and he didn't do well with so many people so close and especially not after being put through sensory hell; the soaked freshman grabbed his stuff and fled up an almost empty staircase. 

In his distress, Tobias wasn't paying much attention to what was in front of him being more focused on getting away from the people behind him. He, quite literally, ran head first into Jake and got knocked flat.

Jake had been walking up the stairs when Tobias collided with him. He staggered forward with an oof and turned to see what smacked into him. "Oh, hey Tobias. I didn't realize you had a history class." Jake said, offering a hand to help the smaller boy up.

Tobias blushed. Jake was his RA and, amongst other things, very handsome. Jake was also tall and broad shouldered, a plus if Tobias was being honest with himself, smart, charming, very nice, and awkward around people. If Jake wasn't almost as awkward around people as he was, Tobias didn't think he'd ever be able to talk to him. As it was, Jake was someone just about everyone could talk to. Even though Tobias had a giant crush on the older boy, he wasn't tongue tied. Usually.

"Uh...I only....the rain...people. I've never been here before. I was trying to get out of the rain and then people came out of nowhere so I went up here." Tobias said, taking Jake's hand to stand up. He blushed again at the contact but Jake didn't seem to notice.

"I can see that." Jake said, realizing how drenched Tobias was.

"Uh, yea. I, uh, gave my umbrella to Ax. He was supposed to have the longer walk but there were these huge puddles and I kept getting turned around and it's raining and I just really needed to catch my breath." Tobias said, thinking he sounded like a total dweeb.

"You want to walk with me? I've got a thirty minute class but if you want to wait, I've got a huge umbrella." Jake offered. 

"No!" Tobias blurted out. 

"Oh, well ok." Jake said, looking confused.

"Ugh, no, I just mean...I would like to but I don't want to be a nuisance." Tobias said.

"Nah, you won't be. I was going to walk with Marco but he's skipping." Jake assured him.

"Well, if you're sure it's not a problem, walking with you sounds great." Tobias grinned. The raging crush that he had on Jake was cheering but another part of him was angry he was being so obvious about it. Who smiled like that to someone just offering to walk under an umbrella? Stupid.

"Great." Jake said, smiling in return. They walked up a couple flights of stairs before they reached his class. "I'll see you in a bit." He said before he entered the classroom. Tobias sat outside in the dimly lit hall. 

Was the light this dim downstairs to? Tobias couldn't be sure. He sat his coat down next to him and pulled out a book. Since he probably wasn't going to have class tomorrow, and maybe not for the day after if he was lucky, he opted for an actual book rather than a textbook. Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey, he was more into sci-fi but fantasy was still good. And the main character was clearly gay just from the book cover. He hadn't been wrong either, Vanyel was explicitly gay and it was amazing.

A couple minutes later, students started streaming out into this hallway from other classrooms and Tobias was ready to panic again. But he had to wait for Jake. Jake was one of the first people out of his class.

"Ready?" Jake asked. Tobias nodded too vigorously. "Let's take the elevator. Less crowded."

He didn't know if Jake knew he was uncomfortable with so many people but he was more than happy to follow him into the elevator anyway. Jake pressed the button for the ground floor, the doors closed, and they started to move. Tobias hoped that the storm didn't knock the power out while they were still in the elevator.

Tobias knew he shouldn't have even thought it. Obviously it would be the one time the universe was paying attention to him. Because, all of a sudden, the lights flickered. Both of them looked up then at each other. Yea, they had both seen that. That's when the lights went out and the elevator lurched, coming to a halt. They were stuck!

"Are we stuck?" Tobias asked. He wasn't nervous yet, the emergency lights should come on and that might help. Maybe they weren't even stuck.

"Uh..." Jake shone his phone light on the control panel and pressed buttons. The doors didn't open. "Give me a hand?" He gripped one door and Tobias followed his lead. They tried to open the doors but they didn't budge. They both knew they didn't even have the leverage to hope it would work. "So, we might be stuck. A little."

"Is there an emergency button on there?" Tobias asked after a couple of tense seconds waiting for the emergency lights to come on. They didn't. Even though there was a clearly labeled emergency light, it was off.

Jake shone his phone over the buttons again. "Yea, there is. Awesome." He pressed the button but nothing happened. He tried it again. Nothing. "Maybe it's silent? Figures, the one time Marco was right about skipping class and I get stuck in an elevator. At least I'm stuck with you though."

"Oh. Well, the campus isn't that big. I'm sure it can't be that long until someone finds us." Tobias said. It wasn't that big a deal, not really. It's not like they could do anything about it. Wait, what was that last thing Jake said? "Oh, uh, why?"

Jake gave him a small smile. "Well, if it was Marco he'd talk my ear off and freak out in five minutes. Rachel would probably try and get me to help her kick the door in. I feel like Ax would want to, like, hotwire the elevator or something. You or Cassie are the best to get stuck in an elevator with. I think she'd do exactly what you're doing, seeing what she can do and sitting down once she realized she couldn't do much. Although you might be able to tell me something to reassure me the elevator isn't going to crash the two floors we have left."

"Yea, I spend a lot of time with Ax. Elevators have a ton of safety cables to make sure that doesn't happen. With most elevators, they're supposed to return to the ground floor in a blackout. But I guess this one is different." Tobias said. He decided to sit down in a corner. Jake joined him on the floor.

"How are classes going?" Jake asked.

"They're good. Better than high school had been." Tobias shrugged.

"Yea. We might be trapped in an elevator but at least we aren't in high school." 

"Yea." If Tobias didn't know Jake, he would've thought that was a joke. But Jake was bad at jokes so it was probably just a statement. He shivered. It had gotten colder without the heat on and he was still in soaking wet clothes.

"Here, take my jacket." Jake said, taking off his signature jacket and offering it to Tobias.

"But you'll be cold. And it's yours." Tobias said.

"It is mine, right. Which means I can offer it my friends who were out walking in the rain in old coats. Come on, I don't want you to get sick." Jake insisted. 

Tobias caved. He absolutely wanted to wear it, he had just been being polite. Jake wrapped it around his shoulders and he almost died. It was huge on his much thinner frame but it was warm and Tobias loved it. God, he really wanted to kiss him.

It was somewhat difficult to maintain conversation when the other person is also quiet and awkward so there was a couple minutes of silence before Jake thought of something else to say. "Hey, Tobias. Last week or something, I think you wanted to talk to me about something? Did you still need me for whatever it was?"

"Huh?" Tobias cursed his auditory processing, he looked at people's lips to help figure out what they were saying (and because he hated eye contact) but he had gotten distracted and simply stared at Jake's lips. "Uh, when was this? I don't remember."

Jake thought for a moment. "You knocked on my door, it was pretty late, Cassie opened the door and I asked what was up." 

"Oh! Uh, yea...no...it's fine. It's fine." Tobias lied, blushing again. He had come to confess his crush on Jake, if for no other reason than Jake can let him down nicely and he could struggle to move on. But then Cassie opened the door and even though Cassie was nice, Tobias had expected Jake to be alone but he got flustered and ran off.

"Are you sure? Because you can talk to me. I can keep it a secret if you need me to. Unless it's a serious illegal issue, i'll probably have to tell someone. But if it's like, freshman with alcohol on campus level illegal, we can keep it between us." Jake said.

Tobias frowned. "I don't drink, Jake. You know that." Tobias had mentioned his alcoholic uncle to their friends before and that he wouldn't drink so he would never end up like that, but he had confided in Jake and Ax that he had also been physically abusive.

"Right. Sorry. But still, if you want to talk I'm here. As your friend. Not just an RA. But if you're being bullied again or David is back, I can do something about it. I...care about you." 

"That's my problem." Tobias muttered under his breath. 

"What was that?" Sitting right next to each other, it was hard to not hear each other.

"Ugh, fine, it's not like I have a chance anyway. Might as well get it over with. I like you, Jake, ok?" Tobias admitted in a huff, unable to look at Jake.

"Oh. I like you to, Tobias." Jake said.

"Not like that! Not as friends." Tobias said, snapping his head to look Jake in the eye. "I have a giant crush on you. I've had a crush on you since we met and then you saved me from those bullies and we became friends and it's only gotten worse. I'm constantly thinking about you, wondering what you'd think of a piece I wrote or drew, what you'd think of this or that food. God, I've even thought of what you'd think when I bought clothes. I know you have a thing with Cassie and, it'll be awkward now but I really needed to tell you the truth. That's what I wanted to tell you last week. So just reject me now so I can be miserable until I start crushing on someone else way out of my league." He dropped his head into his lap.

"Can I touch you?" Jake asked.

"Why?" Tobias asked, back to looking at Jake's lips. He was on guard even if it was Jake, he didn't like being touched.

"Just, on your bicep. It'll help me tell you something." 

"Fine." 

Jake slowly, delicately, put his hand on Tobias's upper arm. He looked Tobias in the eye. It didn't matter to him that Tobias was probably looking at his nose instead. "Cassie and I aren't together. We used to be but it didn't work out like that. We are good friends though. I can reject you if you really want me to but I don't want to do that. Personally, I would be flattered to give my opinions on your stories or drawings. I'd also like to kiss you, if that's alright."

"You...what? Really?" Tobias asked, dumbfounded. He had fantasized about kissing Jake but never thought he'd honestly get to.

"Yea. I've got a crush on you to." Jake admitted with a slight blush to his cheeks.

"Why? I'm just...me." Tobias was legitimately confused. He was barely worthy of a creep like David, he was so not worthy of Jake.

"Yea, you're you. And you're amazing, Tobias! You're smart as hell and just as sarcastic, way more talented than I could ever be, super pretty, strong, a good and honest person, and a lot more. I've never been good at telling people why I like them. Just...just trust me when I say you're amazing."

"You can kiss me now." Tobias said, with that dreamy smile of his that Jake adored.

"Thank you. Can I touch your face?" Jake asked. Tobias nodded, eagerly. They both smiled.

Slowly, reverently, Jake cupped his cheek. Jake angled Tobias' head up and slowly brought his own down. He wanted to give Tobias every opportunity to say no. It never came. Their lips brushed and came together. Tobias was wearing a fruity lip gloss that Jake decided, on the spot, he loved. 

Tobias wound his hands into Jake's hair. He was inexperienced and running out of air but he didn't care, he pushed up and deepened the kiss. It only lasted for a few more seconds before he had to break for air but they were both smiling when they stopped. "That was nice. I know I'm a bad kisser but I hope it was ok."

"You were fine, Tobias. It was good. The lip gloss is nice." Jake said.

"I'm glad you like it." Tobias smiled. "Could we kiss again?"

"I would love to."

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed it.


End file.
